People love to circulate this rubbish around and chat it up until it is blown out of proportion. More FUD from the sensation-driven media; old news likely written by a hungry writer who picked up off a website. Most dinghy thefts happen because the idiot owners don't lock them to the boat or raise them at night. Hello! The locals have little and the cruisers have much by comparison; many are poor fishermen and only want the (15hp or more) outboard. They will quickly ditch the dink. There are reports of thefts and break-ins in the US and Canada every summer on the Great Loop list too. Regarding land travel, one should hold their possessions tightly in their lap when taking a bus in St. Martin, too, as well as in many parts of the US. But if you believe everything you read or hear, you will stay home and miss it all. Regards, John "Seahorse" > My take is the news report was very well written. We heard many of those same reports getting ready to come down the coast of Mexico. I was astounded that the local officials were doing nothing to stem the flow of dingy thefts that Dave on Swansong even report on a year or so ago (I think it was St. Martin?). If the locals rob the boaters they will go elsewhere. The news travels fast these days. In our trip from Seattle to FL I'm aware of only one dingy theft a week before we got to Panama. Other than that I only heard about a girl getting killed on a bus in El Salvador. The person who told us about it was on the bus, so it was first hand information. I would NOT take a bus in C.A.. We ran into 4 college kids in the San Blas islands. They were on a sailboat that ran between Columbia and Costa Rica every week taking people who didn't want to travel by land. The skipper was a Russian guy and his first mate a Jamaican beauty that seemed to run the show. It was a hoot to talk to those kids and hear the stories they told of being 4 college age kids in C.A.. Much more adventure than I could take then, or now! ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Passagemaking-Under-Power Mailing List End of Passagemaking-Under-Power Digest, Vol 43, Issue 2 ******************************************************** **************Get trade secrets for amazing burgers. Watch "Cooking with Tyler Florence" on AOL Food. (http://food.aol.com/tyler-florence?video=4&?NCID=aolfod00030000000002)